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A review by candacesiegle_greedyreader
Bonnie by Christina Schwarz
4.0
Forget that romantic couple of the 1960s film, sleek and handsome in slim '30s fashions, driving vintage cars along Southern backroads, Tommy guns blazing as banjo music plays and the cops are always a half mile behind.
Instead, imagine two worn-out folks exhausted from sleeping in the car or on the ground, bony from having to grab food where they can--they are too well known to go to a restaurant or store. Plus, they're jittery from anxiety and booze, some drugs, and it scares people. Their bodies hurt from gunshot wounds and car accidents. They are worried all the time.
Clyde Barrow was a psychopath from a poor family filled with them. What was Bonnie Parker's excuse? She was smart, educated by the standards of the time and place, wrote poetry, and did not smoke cigars. Sure, her prospects were limited to waitressing or marrying and having a bunch of kids, living poor, but from that to murder and kidnapping?
Christina Schwarz tells the story from Bonnie's point of view, revealing how this impatient, loving, hopeful girl ended up riddled with bullets on a Louisiana backroad. Money was never the object--with all that killing and stealing they were always on the run and rarely had time to spend any--but the excitement was contagious. Schwarz does not delve into the powerful sexual aspect of their relationship: her Bonnie and Clyde are too exhausted and anxious. I think this is a miss. There had to be something so intoxicating about their bond that it would keep Bonnie tied to him until the end, even though both their families begged her to get out.
Schwarz gives us the dusty, poor, ramshackle South of the Depression where people dress in flour sacks and just hope to get on to the next day. The story of Bonnie and Clyde gave them excitement but also scared them to the core. This crazy couple popped up all over the midwest leaving ordinary citizens dead in their wake. You could be next. It's a fascinating look at a mindset that exists today, well told, and hard to look away from.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for access to this title.
~~Candace Siegle, Greedy Reader
Instead, imagine two worn-out folks exhausted from sleeping in the car or on the ground, bony from having to grab food where they can--they are too well known to go to a restaurant or store. Plus, they're jittery from anxiety and booze, some drugs, and it scares people. Their bodies hurt from gunshot wounds and car accidents. They are worried all the time.
Clyde Barrow was a psychopath from a poor family filled with them. What was Bonnie Parker's excuse? She was smart, educated by the standards of the time and place, wrote poetry, and did not smoke cigars. Sure, her prospects were limited to waitressing or marrying and having a bunch of kids, living poor, but from that to murder and kidnapping?
Christina Schwarz tells the story from Bonnie's point of view, revealing how this impatient, loving, hopeful girl ended up riddled with bullets on a Louisiana backroad. Money was never the object--with all that killing and stealing they were always on the run and rarely had time to spend any--but the excitement was contagious. Schwarz does not delve into the powerful sexual aspect of their relationship: her Bonnie and Clyde are too exhausted and anxious. I think this is a miss. There had to be something so intoxicating about their bond that it would keep Bonnie tied to him until the end, even though both their families begged her to get out.
Schwarz gives us the dusty, poor, ramshackle South of the Depression where people dress in flour sacks and just hope to get on to the next day. The story of Bonnie and Clyde gave them excitement but also scared them to the core. This crazy couple popped up all over the midwest leaving ordinary citizens dead in their wake. You could be next. It's a fascinating look at a mindset that exists today, well told, and hard to look away from.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for access to this title.
~~Candace Siegle, Greedy Reader